Archived Issue: March 2005
E-mail Marketing in Your PJ's
Doing email marketing without a strategy is like going to see clients in your pajamas. Do you really want your
clients to see you in your Spongebob PJs? Our point: There is an important process to your morning ritual that
takes you from your bed to your prospective client's meeting. Looking prepared and professional is key to making
a good impression with your prospect. Your email marketing campaign needs the same process and care.
Here’s the scenario: you decide one day that you want to start an email marketing campaign. You dig around in your
database, write some witty text and then begin to worry about being classified as a spammer. You start to wonder,
how can I send this out to people? How will I know who’s reading it? At this point, you might pick up the phone
and start calling your tech friends, your web designer or your 16 year old computer wiz niece who will help you
figure out how to launch your campaign. A word of advice: STOP! Step away from the e-mail campaign.
E-mail campaigns can be incredibly cost-effective and successful marketing tool, but they must be designed with
one word in mind: STRATEGY. Without the big "S" word, you might as well save your time and your money. Just
like any successful and pertinent marketing initiative, e-mail marketing campaigns must begin with the question
"Why am I doing this?", followed closely by "Why should my clients and prospects care about what I’m sending them?".
There are six steps in determining your e-mail marketing strategy.
Step 1: Quit hitting snooze and get out of bed.
Ask yourself the first question in the process: Who’s on my list? If you can't answer that, or you have no list,
go back to bed. The quality of your list is one of the most important factors for the success of your campaign.
If it is a purchased list, or a vendor/association list, we call it a "cold" list. If they are people in your
network, it’s a "warm" list. Obviously, warm is better than cold – because the more people who recognize you,
the more people will read what you’re sending. Before those on your cold list starts lodging spam complaints
against you, you may consider sending a postcard campaign to let them know you will be emailing them information
relevant to their industry and business.
Step 2: Decide what to wear.
Knowing who you are going to visit will help you choose what you should wear. Ask yourself the second question:
What are the demographics of my list? If the majority of your list are people that generally do not have email
addresses, well, then, email marketing might not be the best way to go. This may seem like a "duh" moment, but
we have encountered this on many occasions. Certain industries are notorious for not having email addresses or
for having intensive spam filters.
Step 3: Review your prospect research before you head out the door.
Before you start a campaign, you must determine the frequency and the tone of your e-mail communications.
Ask yourself, What am I trying to convey? People will read and respond better when they know what to expect
from you. Try to keep your information concise, useful and interesting.
Step: 4: Make sure your shoes are the same color.
If your company has invested money on its image, including a logo, your email marketing should look professional
and represent the rest of your marketing materials. Ask yourself, How do I want it to look? HTML emails look the
best if designed professionally, although there is some risk of getting caught in spam filters. Even text-based
emails can look professional if designed properly. A common misperception with e-mail marketing is that because
we all have e-mail programs, anyone can send a campaign. This is false, but we are unfortunately prevented from
posting extremely bad examples of e-mail templates for fear of being sued. Suffice it to say, there are plenty
of shining examples of what NOT to do when practicing e-mail marketing.
Step 5: Take the bus or the Escalade.
The bus will get you where you’re going but it will be slow and it sure ain’t pretty. The V8 Escalade may cost
a little extra but it will get there on time and in style. Ask yourself, How am I going to send the campaign?
Most e-mail programs are not robust enough to handle an e-mail campaign. You don’t want your IT director
telling you that you crashed the company’s mail server with your 3,000 emails. Also, you must ensure that
your emails are in compliance with CAN-SPAM. Did you know that not including an opt-out link in your email
campaign is a violation of CAN-SPAM? There are many different programs available to manage your e-mail
campaigns for you. Using your company email server is not one of them.
Step 6: Get past the security guard.
You’ve arrived at the prospect’s building and you now need to get in. Ask yourself, How do I avoid spam
filter traps? Most importantly, using permission-based email lists will get your email to the InBox.
Carefully crafting your content is also key in avoiding spam filters. Certain words and phrases trigger
spam filters and land your email in the great garbage can in the sky. Avoid excessive exclamation points
and words like “new and exciting”. Being considerate to the frequency of your campaigns is also important.
And never send a file attachment in your campaign emails.
Now that you understand that there is a process to developing an email marketing campaign, you can develop a
successful strategy. Showing up in your sport coat, pajama pants and slippers doesn’t even work for Michael Jackson -
and it certainly won't work for the rest of us.
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